Summer! Often described as a time to sit back and relax, a summer vacation can be seen as the antithesis to any opportunity for learning. However, summer projects allow for learning to continue throughout the year. Summer projects should be student driven, due to the fact that they allow for self-motivation and individualism, as long as teachers are able to monitor the progress and quality of the work being done.

A teacher-designed summer project does not allow for the same amount of individualism that could stem from a project designed by a student. Giving specific requirements for a summer project for an entire class of students will produce a number of cookie-cutter responses with no variety from student to student. This is because forcing students to fit into a mold limits any possible chance of self-expression. The entire point of creativity is to be outside of the norm, but that is impossible with a teacher-designed project, because 'the norm' is exactly what it is designed for.

Furthermore, in a standard educational setting, students are not able to pick and choose what interests them, and this can lead to a lack of motivation during the normal school year. Finding a subject that one is passionate about is integral to continuing the joy of learning and of new discoveries that is so often lost in the later years of formal education. This is not an issue for student-designed summer projects. Allowing students to pick what interests them for a summer project would solve this issue. With no parameters set by teachers, the educational possibilities are endless for a student.

However, regardless of how much a student is willing to learn on their own during summer vacation with a student-based project, teachers still have their place in this system. Checks and balances are necessary for any system like this to function, and summer projects are no different. Some parameters for these summer projects should be set by teachers. Otherwise, there is no way to ensure that actual learning is taking place during what is supposed to be a learning experience. Teachers also need to have the ability to grade any given project, which would be difficult to do objectively if no parameters were given to the projects.

Learning does not stop at the end of high school, and it certainly does not stop at the end of a school year. Student-designed projects allow for creativity and individualism from each and every student, and allowing teachers to have a guiding-but not controlling-hand in the projects can lead to fantastic academic results. 